PUZZLE

Deeper into the Reactor (December 29, 2011)

29

DEC/11

Dearest Angel,

We’ve retrieved the book that the Dwarf named Carbonstump was using carrying earlier in the Libraries; when holding it, I get a very bad feeling, as if I was being encompassed by some sort of evil, especially when I opened it.- putting it away seemed to help. But opened, the contents were pages that were scrawled with random characters, some of which often switched places with others (remember the books in the Wizard’s library I mentioned before? Similar to those, yet much creepier, and these were dynamic compared to its cousins in the library).

We left those poor, chaos-phage-inflicted souls in the tunnels (it’s what they deserve after putting us through this trash), and continued along the way through the gate they were blocking. Following the map on the timepiece, I was able to detect that we were being pursued through this area, as enemy individuals were marked by red dots on my map. Figuring that something was allowing them to track us, I decided that we should leave the “jumping” equipment behind just in case they were bugged with something that could function as a tagging device. The Stranger, unfortunately, had to part with the janitor hat, which he decided to consider as a candidate for something that could be tracked by the guards. After a painfully long traversing of the seemingly endless tunnel, we emerged into the light of a familiar desert.

Well, familiar is not quite the right word, but the fact that we ended up there is logical, as we did first arrive in a desert setting after passing through the Courage window. But actually leaving the reactor interior brought us closer to our goal location itself- my map showed that if we went along the cliff side, we would find the area we needed to access; the timepiece map also showed that we were still being pursued, yet there were some guards right above the pile of clothes that we left (I made the right conclusion about the clothes). The party decided to stick close to the wall while we traveled, as vista base provided a cover from the guards above. It was during this time that I received a message from D.A., the gnome wizard who owns many of the items we found in the tower, including the journal, timepiece, and even the golems.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to communicate back to her, but this is what she said:
- D.A. was able to discover the true nature of the windows. I don’t quite understand what she means by that, but she is sending her research in coding to the time piece.
- D.A. mentioned that we needed to power something, although she was very ambiguous about what she meant. I believe she was talking about the reactor.
- She also mentioned that a very dark artifact was in our vicinity. I concluded this to be the grimoire that we picked up from the dwarf and the human, using the experiences I mentioned above to be my evidence.

Her communications ended, but we finally made it to the access tunnel, marked by a fake stone wall.
p. I asked Colt to pass through the wall, which he did, but was obstructed by a second wall behind the first which was apparently ghost proof. Wow, these people think pretty well about the people who might come and access the reactor. To be honest, I wouldn’t have thought about ghosts trying to break in if I had built the reactor security, so I applaud them for doing their job well. As for the first door, Colt mentioned that it was large and heavy, but still could be lifted off the ground by something. I tried my Tenser’s floating disk, but that did not really work; Eross had the solution in his crossbow (he has too many things in that crossbow, honestly). The bow acted as some sort of platform lever, able to raise and lower, and more importantly hold something in place at a desired height- the gap he created was large enough to allow The Stranger to open the door easily (he’s very good at these sorts of things). And with that, we were inside.
p. Shutting the door behind us, we could only rest for a brief moment, as the time piece showed that our pursuers were rappelling down the canyon wall; red dots descending next to the depicted cliff wall flashed on the small holographic display. We had to fortify ourselves quickly before they broke through the barrier.
p. The Stranger remained behind for a while, manipulating the controls to hold the door shut, while the rest of us continued into a large round room. Scattered along the floor were different types of contraptions, which I have never seen before- they appeared to be magic, but at the same time, they were quite simple and reminded me of the certain types of engineering my uncle once showed me back in Ruun. Among these interesting sets of equipment were regular boxes that could be used to blockade and fortify our position. Additionally, there were some plates that were able to amplify the effects of some of powers.